How Did You Get that Corn so Early?

The garlic is typically the first plants out of the ground in the spring and this year is no exception. The garlic plants are about two inches tall.

One year I had some garlic planted near the road and it caused great confusion for the neighbors.

Here is why...

Are American's Lazy

Are Americans lazy?

I heard a speaker pose this question a while back. His assertion was that as a society we were not as productive as other cultures around the world and it was because we had become lazy.

Well maybe his definition was different than mine, but I don't think we are lazy and here is why.

How to Pay Cash for Cars - Lesson 4: Retire Rich & Live Generous

Retire Rich

If you were to to continue to pay yourself a $475 car payment to invest, you would have over $1.6 million in thirty years, and at 40 years it would be a whopping...

How to Pay Cash for Cars - Lesson 3: Drive Free Cars

Drive Free Cars

Continue to think out of the box and things get really wild. You buy a used car for $12,000 and you still have $20,000 sitting in your car fund earning 12% on average. Even if you never contribute another dollar to your car mutual fund you'd be able to buy $12,000 cars every 5 years from now on! The returns you'd earn on that mutual fund will pay for your cars for the rest of your life!

How to Pay Cash for Cars - Lesson 2: Thinking Differently

Thinking Differently

What if we got really radical, as scripture teaches, and came up with a plan to make our money work for us?

How to Pay Cash for Cars - Lesson 1: America's Love Affair

How to Pay Cash for Your Car

Americans have a love affair with their cars. Where else can you find a broke couple, living pay check to pay check, with two shiny, new cars in the driveway. 85% of new car buyers sign up for a six year note for an average of $26,000 at a typical interest rate of 9.6%. This means that 85% of the new cars on the street are dragging an average car payment of $475 behind them.

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 6 I Didn't Know This, Now What?

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

I didn't Know All This. Now What?

Market Menu for Saturday, April 18, 2015

We still have 8 bushels of Candy carrots with great flavor and sweetness. That might last until the new carrots are available. The new carrots are up in the garden and so are the first crop of Radishes.

The squash varieties available this week:  Acorn & Carnival

Market Table this Summer (photo cred: Reed Petersen)

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, April 18, 2015 (New items are in Bold Print)

Pansies - Lots of Color
Frost Hardy Herb Plants - Chives, Mint, Sage, French Tarragon, Rosemary
New Crop Green Onions - Walla Walla Sweet

Chipolini Onions
Sweet Spanish Onions
Red Onions

Salsa: an array of different kinds
Pickles - Sweet, Dill and Relish
Slawsa - Something New

Candy Carrots
Parsnips

Cabbage - Fresh Green, good for slaw, kraut or kimchi (see 8 delicious recipes on our website.)

Shallots
Cipotle Smoked Peppers

Garlic

Charcoal (home grown, home made)
Potting Mix with our compost

Ready to Use Herb Transplants

There here is nothing better than fresh herbs for your cooking. They have the kick of flavor the way you remember herbs should taste. Often you find herb starts at the local green house are very modest in size and you resign yourself to several months of growing time before can use them.

We have found that people really like our larger herbs that you can take home and use immediately.

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 5 - The Role of Parenting in the College Decision

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

The Role of Parenting in the College Decision...

Are You a Contrarian

Are you a contrarian if you go in the out door at Sam's Club, or if you back your car into the garage, or if you eat desert first?

Maybe. Beside being different there can be very good reasons to do the above things.

Are you a contrarian if you farm organically?

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 4: Choose a Good Major

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

Onion'n'Leeks

With the title of this post, I bet you thought I was going to do a Guns'n'Roses parody. Not.

Saturday was amazing weather so the boys (Reed, Johnny & Chris) finished planting 6000 onions and 3000 leeks. We still have 2000 cippolini onions to go, but we ran out of compost.

Here is why the compost is important...

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 3: Close the Financial Gap

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

Closing the Financial Gap...

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 2: Choose a College You Can Afford

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

Choose a College You Can Afford...

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 1: Why Not Borrow

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

How to Pay Cash for College

We have been taking Reed, our high school junior, on college visits over the last several months. A year from now he will be making decisions on where to attend college, just like this year's seniors. We have two students in college and a junior in high school. As a family, we are committed to not borrowing for college. I'll ask you to pull up a chair to our kitchen table and listen to what we have taught our students.

Black Cottage Cheese

This post isn't about some new funky probiotic food, it is about soil aggregation.

What is soil aggregation? Read on...

Your Soil is Naked, Hungry, Thirsty and Running a Fever

You'd think from the title of this post that I was describing someone with a tropical disease like Ebola.

The title is referring to a picture of a bare field that Ray Archuleta uses in his seminars on soil health.

He says...